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thehatfox

@ thehatfox @kbin.social

Posts
6
Comments
28
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • What podcasts do you recommend?

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  • I've been a longtime fan of CheapShow, a comedy podcast loosely based around unusual items found in cheap shops and charity shops (thrift stores). Episodes include deep dives in vintage/retro media, taste tests of weird foodstuffs, various games and challenges, plus a lot of complete chaos and toilet humour.

    Maybe not for everyone, but if any of the above catches your interest it's worth a try.

  • European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

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  • I prefer non swappable phone batteries. If I need to charge my phone while out I use USB power bank, which is infinitely more useful than a naked phone battery that can only be used in the phone. Non swappable batteries also allow for phone casing to be much more resilient to impacts and the elements, and can help reduce the phones size.

    A phone battery is not to going to reach end of life for 2-3 years in normal use, so it doesn’t seem too much of hardship to get the toolbox out or go to a service centre when it does eventually need replacing.

    Maybe require manufactures to not use such incredibly strong glues that some use to secure the batteries, but mandating they be swappable seems the wrong approach to me.

  • Do not touch the legacy runes.

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  • Computers and tech in general often feels like magic. The first computer I ever used was a ZX Spectrum, now I have something vastly more computationally powerful, and constantly connected to a worldwide communication network and knowledge repository in my pocket!

    It's amazing any of it actually works, especially as we don't always seem to know how it works.

  • Pokemon is driving me to want a Plex Server.

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  • As a Pokemon fan I understand your pain. It's not like it's an obscure series, or from a small company. Why is it so hard to stream such a popular anime? I'm surprised The Pokemon Company hasn't rolled out their own streaming platform yet.

    Before diving in to Plex I would highly recommend looking at Jellyfin first also. It's offers much the same features as Plex but is fully free and open source.

    For my own media server I use an old HP Microserer G8 purchased second hand, and upgraded with a Xeon e3-1260L, also sourced cheaply used. It's small, easy to service and happily runs my Linux disro of choice. I know other people using various SFF PCs, or even repurposed old desktops. For best performance look for a CPU (or GPU) with hardware video encoding support. Otherwise, the rule of thumb for Plex used to be a CPU with at least 2000 Passmark score on cpubenchmark.net per concurrent 1080p stream.

  • Should I Go Back to Reddit?

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  • If you go back to Reddit you will probably end up spending hours reading about the protests anyway. Even if you stopped using all social media, chances are you're going to end up reading and thinking about the latest Reddit drama anyway, because it's making a new headline on at least one of the tech news sites each day.

    Lemmy, kbin and the wider fediverse have attracted a lot of my own attention recently, but that's because I find it interesting and genuinely exciting for a new community to form and develop. Because of that I don't think it's a bad use of my time, so long as I still keep life generally in balance. Perhaps you should ask yourself the same question.

  • Japan to open up Apple and Google app stores to competition

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  • With similar legislation in the EU, and other countries possibly following, perhaps the domino effect will force Apple to allow third party software globally. There were rumours Apple would respond to changes in Europe by only allowing side loading etc in Europe. But it seems like turning this on or off for every country/territory would cause a lot of fragmentation in the global app market.

  • Japan to open up Apple and Google app stores to competition

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  • The article says the Japanese government is still working on the exact regulations to be implemented. Perhaps the Japanese government will require the platforms to promote other options somehow - similar to the browser choice screen the EU mandated Microsoft add to Windows to increase web browser competition.

    Google does not block 3rd party app stores, but most users do not use or even know of them, and 90%+ of all apps are still downloaded/purchased from the Play Store.

    It's still a bigger change for Apple though, who block any third party software from outside the App Store entirely. As the EU are also heading in the same direction, maybe Apple will eventually cave and allow third party software sources globally. There were rumours that they would do this for EU customers only at one point, but if more and more countries adopt similar laws it will cause a lot of fragmentation.

  • Anyone remember T2: The Arcade Game (Game Boy)? So much easier on the eyes on a modern screen

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  • I played it on an original Game Boy and remember it being hard to see what was going on. Like you say it looks a bit easier with a Game Boy Colour palette.

    A lot of Game Boy games struggled with the balance between sprite detail and legibility.